multiculturalism in the headlines

Over the course of this six week semester I had the opportunity to explore and learn material that was out of my comfort zone. As an individual that teaches mathematics. To be able to learn and explore a content area that I am unfamiliar with such as ELA, can become a very useful tool when teaching mathematics to high school students. In the very short time period I was able to learn many new English Language Arts techniques that I could modify into my math curriculum. Thankfully, I had the convenience of working in a school that has a very diverse population of students that I was able to observe. The students in an ELA classroom setting that I had the privilege to observe were able to respond to different cultural backgrounds in a positive manner. Also, because the school that I work at in so diverse I was able to explore how English Language Learners interact to different classroom settings. I was also able to obtain the knowledge of how other teachers express academic knowledge to this diverse population of students.  I was able to observe students at the adolescent age group (15-21yrs old) as well as how this diverse population of students interacted within the same classroom environment.

I feel that the content of English has so many ways and opportunities to incorporate culture in to lessons. Mathematics is also a very culture based content. However, due to the short time frame that we as math teachers are given. It’s tough to squeeze in material that would be of high interest to many diverse cultural populations. In the school setting there is numerous ways that a teacher can incorporate culture within the lesson. The use of different literature works in the classroom gives the teacher a way to express different societies, and authors of different cultures to students. The teacher if he/she wanted to could relate a book or topic to a specific student’s culture. This would enhance the knowledge of the surrounding students as well as give the ELL student confidence and make them more interactive with the lesson.  Language vocabulary is a very crucial part of learning and understanding a language. Regardless of the specific content area, each and every content area has its own vocabulary definitions. As a future educator it is our duties to be able to connect and incorporate these specific vocabulary terms into our lessons. In doing so this will only enhance a student’s knowledge by exposing them to these different cultures. Also, allowing them to become more familiar with these different types of cultures and be able to understand how these cultures differ. These terms can be related and connected to other cultures which assist with the ELL feel involved in the lesson. A majority of the ELL learners in a program will struggle with a language that is not native to theirs.  We as future educators must set the expectation bar for academic learning just as high for our ELL students as we do for our mainstream students. We should encourage ELL students to incorporate their language and culture within the lesson.

In a classroom that I did observations in the teacher spent an entire week on a lesson for a student to express and teach about one of his cultural holiday celebrations. All of the students in the class were eager to learn more, but not of just that culture, other cultures as well. This lesson not only made the ELL student feel wanted, but the other students began to acknowledge him more. The other students began to assist and shadow the struggling ELL student.

When learning about other cultures in the classroom this starts to get other students interested in their personnel cultural background.  The teacher gave the students an assignment where they were required to obtain a type of literature that related to a culture other than their own. The students were required to explore the setting, author, and characters and reflect on what message the author or character were trying to express. Throughout the class semester I had the privilege to watch and read many articles about how to incorporate different cultures into the classroom while keeping students engaged in the lesson. I hope that someday I will get the opportunity to teach a subject other than mathematics so I can incorporate some of these teaching techniques into my lessons.